10,000 Geeks
Are the key to the GOP’s future. That’s techno-geeks, willing to learn politics, not politico-nerds, of which there is never any shortage. Mark Tapscott at the DC Examiner channels Red State’s Erickson and The Next Right’s Ruffini on the importance of techies to political movements:
I can only imagine what conservatives could do if we had a mere 1,000 - much less 10,000! - “geeks and engineers” working on new Web uses for the movement.
But there is another critical point left unaddressed by both Erick and Patrick - though both no doubt have discussed this point in other contexts - and that is the necessity of conservatives recognizing and accepting just how profoundly the world has changed as a result of the Internet and learning to think, see and speak as do the inhabitants of the new digital world. We have to learn to translate timeless conservative truths to their language and thought patterns.
All good points, though I think there is a deeper problem of message that got confused or shoved aside in the last few years, as candidates allowed adversaries to characterize the party, its leadership and what they stand for, and tried to climb on the other side’s bandwagon. I’ve stayed out of that post-debacle conservative finger-pointing thing because I’m no party policy wonk or pol, I’m just another voter. What they plan to do about it is their problem. But economically, I have no idea what any of them stand for anymore. Panic, every man for himself, which way’s the exit, I think. GOP social policy has been successfully characterized by adversaries, and some conservatives, variously as racism, fundamentalism and general Neanderthalism, and could stand clarification if not adjustment that, to steal a phrase from the other side, embraces diversity. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a Neanderthal. Maybe it’s time for a little more Big Cave Neanderthalism. In foreign policy, all I know is Obama won in large part by disparaging Bush, and promptly picked up Bush’s foreign policy. Thank God.
Meanwhile, getting back to the geek-empowerment end of the equation, Mark Tapscott recommends two books: ”Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World” by Don Tapscott. (Not a relative, Mark Tapscott says, not that there’s anything wrong with shilling books by Canadian or recently Canadian relatives. I do it all the time. See “Plugs for Pals” at right.) Also Don Tapscott’s ”Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything.” Which, politics aside, sound interesting if you have children and/or if you intend to live in their brave new world, politically and otherwise.
Topics: America, Neanderthals, conservatism, geekism, pols
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:13 am on Monday, December 29, 2008
2 Responses to “10,000 Geeks”
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December 29th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Here’s one geek very aware about what’s needed and more than willing to pitch in. Where does one sign up?
December 29th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Jules, “In foreign policy, all I know is Obama won in large part by disparaging Bush, and promptly picked up Bush’s foreign policy. Thank God.”
During the campaign, evidently Obama was lying through his teeth to somebody, us or his own people. What makes him a paragon of honesty and stable enough to predict now?
I would submit that he is still the blank slate that he was at the start. He’s done nothing yet and hasn’t issued any orders on major domestic or foreign affairs that concern the country. When the orders are issued the respective secretaries will have to formulate their actions based on what he says they have to do.
The present activity is still in the purview of the current administration.